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Avatar: Recycled (Released)

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 (Edited)

I started working on this yesterday.  I had been waiting to get the subtitle issue figured out, but I went ahead and got going because that is taking too long and I may just end up recreating (and possibly changing) them.

Basically trying to keep all the environmental nonsense from being shoved down my throat and toning down some of the other quasi political rhetoric.  At the same time I want to trim it up and improve the pacing.

So far I’m about 10 minutes into the film, and while I haven’t cut a lot of actual footage so far, I have done a lot of audio editing, completely removing Jake’s voice over at the beginning so that it is introduced during his first video recording, and also eliminating some of that political jargon I was talking about earlier.

I’ve got a long, long ways to go.

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I might actually enjoy the film now. I was about in my chair asleep when I saw it.

My dad slept to Star Wars

I slept to Avatar

 

"The other versions will disappear. Even the 35 million tapes of Star Wars out there won’t last more than 30 or 40 years. A hundred years from now, the only version of the movie that anyone will remember will be the DVD version [of the Special Edition], and you’ll be able to project it on a 20’ by 40’ screen with perfect quality. I think it’s the director’s prerogative, not the studio’s to go back and reinvent a movie." - George Lucas

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Could you change "Unobtanium" to "Kryptonite" (and color the chunk of metal in the Burke dude's office green)?

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May I humbly point to my comments in the first post of this thread:

http://originaltrilogy.com/forum/topic.cfm/Avatar-and-Politics-in-general-mild-spoilers/topic/11065/

IT'S MY TRILOGY, AND I WANT IT NOW!

"[George Lucas] rebooted the franchise in 1997 without telling anyone." -skyjedi2005

"Yeah, well, George says a lot of things..." a young 1997 xhonzi on RASSM

"They're my movies." -George Lucas. 19 people won oscars for their work on Star Wars (1977) and George Lucas wasn't one of them.

Rewrite the Prequels!

 

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xhonzi said:

May I humbly point to my comments in the first post of this thread:

http://originaltrilogy.com/forum/topic.cfm/Avatar-and-Politics-in-general-mild-spoilers/topic/11065/


With one exception, I haven't reached the parts of the movie mentioned yet in order to edit them (I just finished the hometree attack).  They are all however on my list for removal, especially the last one.

The scene with Jake and the book has already been removed.  As well as about 80-90% of all other environmental messages scattered throughout.  Much of Jake's voice overs are removed as well for environmental and political reasons. 

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Awesome.  Can't wait.

IT'S MY TRILOGY, AND I WANT IT NOW!

"[George Lucas] rebooted the franchise in 1997 without telling anyone." -skyjedi2005

"Yeah, well, George says a lot of things..." a young 1997 xhonzi on RASSM

"They're my movies." -George Lucas. 19 people won oscars for their work on Star Wars (1977) and George Lucas wasn't one of them.

Rewrite the Prequels!

 

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Sent a PM regarding a video source for your edit... may help a bit.

         

 “You people must realize that the public owns you for life, and when you’re dead, you’ll all be in commercials dancing with vacuum cleaners.”

– Homer Simpson

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Very near completion with this edit, and I was able to remove or cut down on every single scene that really bugged the hell out of me.  The environmental "message" is now almost entirely gone, and what little is left is very minor and unobtrusive, and applies only to the world of Pandora (not some other planet light years away  that is biologically very different Mr. Cameron - all your poorly conceived, and executed environmental points have been excised). 

Pretty much all of the other political jabs were removed as well. 


It looks like the total time cut will be somewhere between 18 and 19 minutes.

 

 

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Editing is now complete with nineteen minutes cut.

I have a few subtitles to add in which will take about 10 minutes, and then I'll get started on rendering.  I hope to have a bare-bones DVD up by Monday.  

 

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Just for s's and g's, what if someone did a "depressing 70's edition" and took the bomb explosion from RAMBO (recoloring the foliage to the more bluish tinge) to signify the bomb being dropped (even if the shuttle gets destroyed) on the Tree of Life?  I know it would be hard to edit in scenes from other movies, as AVATAR is 100% CGI, but still... I can wonder...

BTW, if the subtitles are removable, would it be possible to rewrite the Na'vi dialogue?  Also, would it be possible to edit out the scenes in the briefing room showing the blatant rednecks sitting in the crowd?

         

 “You people must realize that the public owns you for life, and when you’re dead, you’ll all be in commercials dancing with vacuum cleaners.”

– Homer Simpson

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With the blu-ray the subtitles are not coded into the video so they had to be created from scratch and made to say anything (though they don't really say anything too bad).   At one point I had created a test clip of Neytiri, when she puts the little panther like thing down early in the movie, saying, "Burn in hell demon beast.  Burn in hell!"

And it's possible to somewhat edit the briefing room scene, and I have done so.  It doesn't completely remove the crowd, but does take out some of the idiot shots, especially at the end when they cheer and all.

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I wonder how it would come out if someone did a PASSION OF THE CHRIST version of AVATAR, to the degree of what Mel originally wanted to do by not having english subtitles for the spoken language and let the acting and the story "speak for the characters" so to .... um, speak.

Regardless, I look forward to see what you've done with the edit!

         

 “You people must realize that the public owns you for life, and when you’re dead, you’ll all be in commercials dancing with vacuum cleaners.”

– Homer Simpson

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A bare bones DVD is now available..or soon will be.

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This has been uploaded, but hasn't been added at the usual places yet.

 

If someone is impatient PM me.

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Thanks, I'll check it out.

IT'S MY TRILOGY, AND I WANT IT NOW!

"[George Lucas] rebooted the franchise in 1997 without telling anyone." -skyjedi2005

"Yeah, well, George says a lot of things..." a young 1997 xhonzi on RASSM

"They're my movies." -George Lucas. 19 people won oscars for their work on Star Wars (1977) and George Lucas wasn't one of them.

Rewrite the Prequels!

 

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This is up on FE now (with cover art). The blu-ray has also been finalized, and I'll be making an AVCHD as well.  Hopefully both of those will be uploaded within the next couple of weeks.  I'll also replace the DVD that is currently available with one with decent menus.

 

A deleted scenes section will be available on the these newer versions which will show a sampling of scenes and what was removed.

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Can you direct me to where I can download this? I'm very interested to see it.

 

Also I'm very new here >_>

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Has anyone seen the new special edition release in theaters?  If so, is any of the new footage worthwhile? 

I'll consider adding more material into the edit when the blu-ray comes out in November, but am wondering if any one has any thoughts now?

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Hey man, I'm DL'ing your cut right now.

I'm wondering if you entirely cut out the voiceover at the beginning with the forest flyover. 

If you did, it would have been even better to just play his voice on a black background with nothing happening, then let the movie start.  The last movie I saw that did this was Jarhead, and it seems to work really well.

And from what I heard about the Special Edition (which I haven't seen), all that was edited back in were more shots that contribute to the preachy message of the film (such as scenes in an abandoned school building. which looked utterly stupid judging from the re-release trailers).  Everything else is just meaningless extensions of scenes on Pandora, with the exception of Jake explaining the physics of the floating mountains.

The only thing now that really sounds substantial to put back in are the Earth scenes, which Cameron recently revealed will be put back in the 16 minute-longer November edition.

Anyways, here's a list of footage, taken from an enthusiastic IMDB fan:

- When Jake goes on his first sortie in the Helicopter, theres a scene where the team observes a group of Sturmbeasts. Put back in in order to re-establish the Sturmbeast, as it was completely taken out before

- The group visits Graces old school for supplies. This was a great scene and should have never been taken out in the first place. It also showed another brand new animal, the Stingbat.

- When Jake meets Neytiri, the scene where Jake taps on the glowing plants, the scene is a bit extended as the characters walk over some glowing marshes.

- When Jake has dinner with the Na'vi, the scene is extended. A Na'vi kid is interested in Jake, but his parent keeps him away, meanwhile Jake asks Neytiri for her name. This was a really nice extension that showed a playful side to Neytiris personality.

- When Jake and crew arrive at the Floating Mountains, the scene is extended as Jake is on the mountain and views them while in voiceover he talks about how grace explained them to him "something about the mag lev effect of unobtainium" or something to that effect.

- Extended scene with Jake, Neytiri and the Fan Lizards. A very nice scene where the characters are having fun.

- When Jake, Tsu'tey and the other Na'vi travel through the mountains to get to the banshees, Neytiri does a flyover around them and shares a greeting with Jake. I really liked this extension.

- Sturmbeast hunt. A short, but very awesome action scene, it leads into Jakes voice over about him being a hunter now "death from above." Theres a great moment in this scene where Neytiri copies what Jake says.

- The Love scene. Jake and Neytiri attaching their queues. I actually think this is a good addition, because the scene is edited much better this time. You could tell before that footage was taken out.

- The Na'vi, including Tsu'tey, burn down the RDA bulldozers, equipment, and kill the soldiers and workers. We're shown the aftermath with charred bodies, etc. This is a pretty short scene, but its once that really should have been in the movie since day one as it provides a better rationale for Quaritch convincing Selfridge to attack the Hometree

- Extensions in the battle. Mostly when the animals come. There are new shots of the Hammerheads rampaging through the amps, the Sturmbeasts have been added back in and cause chaos as well. Also a few new shots of Banshees eating humans. Also some new shots in the Neytiri vs Quaritch battle. Also, after Tsu'tey is gunned down, you see him fall through the forest and land on the ground violently, it seems like his ponytail was ripped off in the fall.

- Finally, the death of Tsu'Tey. This was a GREAT scene. Great acting, and amazing CGI that perfectly capture the emotions.

 

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Sounds like there are a few potential possibilities there, but not too much.  We'll have to see how the remaining footage on blu-ray turns out.

 

As for the beginning of my edit, the forest and voice over are completely removed.  The voice overs in my edit are a result of Jake doing his video logs, so many of them, including the one at the beginning are removed.

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According to a recent interview with James Cameron, the special edition set coming out in November will reportedly have over 40 minutes of extra scenes included in the supplemental section.  That could make for quite an impressive extended fan edit.  :)

Although a lot of it will be "unfinished" meaning it'll probably be missing a lot of CGI work. 

View the interview here: 

http://www.hometheaterforum.com/forum/thread/303450/james-cameron-talks-november-release-of-avatar-boxset-blu-ray-release

 

 

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A lot of unfinished footage could be a problem for a 95% CG movie. 

The Earth opening really interests me, but sounds like it might be an awful fit for my edit because of what it's trying to say.  Still there may be some bits and pieces there that I could work into a stronger intro for the film.  A couple of the other scenes that have been mentioned being in the special edition sound like they have potential, but a lot sounds like rubbish as well.

 

I need to figure out how I'm even going to get the newer footage because I certainly don't want to buy a new version of Avatar.